Tesla Secures California Transportation Permit, Paving Way for Future Robotaxi Service
Tesla gains a transportation charter permit in California, allowing it to operate employee shuttles.
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Tesla Secures California Transportation Permit, Paving Way for Future Robotaxi Service
Tesla received a permit Tuesday from the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) to operate a transportation service in the state, the beginning of a long regulatory road that could eventually lead to the company getting the OK to operate a robotaxi service there. Image:Toru Hanai/Bloomberg / Getty Images The permit, which Tesla applied for in November 2024, doesn’t cover autonomous vehicle testing or deployment. And it’s technically different than the permits that ride-hailing companies Lyft and Uber possess. Tesla was granted a transportation charter permit, or TCP. A TCP means the company — in this case Tesla — owns the vehicles and uses employees as drivers, according to the CPUC, which regulates human-driven and driverless ride-hailing services in the state. A TCP is for companies that want to offer prearranged transportation services like roundtrip sightseeing, according to the commission. Uber and Lyft hold transportation network company (TNC) permits. TNCs use an online-enab…
